LTE is on track to rock your world

LTE is shaping up to be a major network technology, and Infonetics Research this week released a report demonstrating just how big it will be.

LTE is – well, the acronyms can get insane if I start spelling it all out. The short version is that LTE, standing for Long Term Evolution, could be the next big thing in wireless technology. It falls into the category of 4G, the so-called fourth generation of cellular technology, where voice, data and streamed multimedia flow freely.

LTE speeds have been demonstrated in the neighborhood of 100 Mbps in both the downlink and uplink from a mobile device, fast enough to alter the way we think of mobile devices and the way networks are structured. However, it should be noted that recent, more conservative estimates put the downlink number closer to 20 Mbps, which is still pretty darn fast.

LTE is scheduled for its first commercial deployments next year. In fact, Infonetics says that the number of LTE launches scheduled for 2010 has risen from 10 in March to 14 today, so interest in the technology is accelerating. The first major technical deployments have been launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan and Verizon Wireless in the U.S.

Unfortunately, there may be a bit of a lag in bringing the 4G technology to the smartphone market. Infonetics says that LTE will initially be PC-based, with laptops, netbooks and the like getting LTE-enabled first. LTE smartphones aren’t expected until after 2011.

The number of LTE service subscribers is expected to reach 72 million by 2013, and the market for LTE infrastructure equipment is expected to blow past $5 billion by that year.

Network World’s Brad Reed put together an in-depth look at LTE technology a year ago. 

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.